


of sugar cookies and chocolate puddings

by kybelles



Category: Banana Fish
Genre: Alternate Universe - Childhood Friends, Alternate Universe - Neighbors, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff, Growing Up Together, M/M, a very brief angst though because these boys deserve to be happy, also none of the creepy characters are here bye, this fic is about soft pining boys who grew up together so you don't belong here
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-29
Updated: 2018-07-29
Packaged: 2019-06-18 09:12:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,729
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15482496
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kybelles/pseuds/kybelles
Summary: Eiji first meets Ash on a gloomy sunday afternoon.After a little silence, the door is slowly opened by someone Eiji doesn’t notice at first. When he lowers his eyes a little, however, his gaze meets with a pair of bright green eyes. He takes a little step back, taking the appearance of the blonde kid who’s standing in front him. The suspicious scowl on his face softens a little when his eyes catch the plate in Eiji’s hands but he keeps holding his guard.“Um…” Eiji begins hesitantly.“What do you want?” the boy asks with a challenging face.“M-my mom sent this.” he stammers finally, pushing the plate forward a little clumsily.





	of sugar cookies and chocolate puddings

**Author's Note:**

> it's only been 4 episodes and banana fish's already punched me in the face (and feelings) several times.  
> since the original story makes me too sad i decided to write a fluffy childhood friends au. hope you enjoy!  
> (i haven't been around children for a while so i apologize if i suck at writing them as kids)

**8 | 6**

Eiji first meets Ash on a gloomy sunday afternoon.

He’s coloring a funny looking giraffe on his book when his mom calls his name from the kitchen. He quickly abandons the coloring, walking towards his mom’s voice. Eiji’s eyes sparkles with happiness when he realizes his mom’s holding a plate of his favorite sugar dough cookies, causing her to laugh softly.

“These are not for you baby, but don’t worry, I’ve saved you plenty.” she says gently. “I’ve told you our new neighbors have moved to our counter apartment, remember?”

Eiji nods.

“Well, can you be a sweet boy and take this plate to them? I wanted to give them a little welcome treat.”

Eiji wants pout and ask her why can’t _she_ take the plate to new neighbors, but he also knows how other grown-ups talks about him being “a little too shy for his own good” to his mother when they think Eiji can’t hear them, so he wants to prove them wrong.

“I’ll do it, mommy!” he exclaims bravely. “I’ll take the plate!”

His mom coos like he’s _a little baby_ and kisses him on the forehead.

He’s not a little baby. His sister is the baby, she can’t even talk unlike him! He’s a big boy.

With this determination, he puts on his shoes, carefully takes the plate from his mom and marches toward the new neighbors’ door. However, he notices the doorbell isn’t in a reachable distance for him when he reaches the door, so he knocks the door as hard as he can.

After a little silence, the door is slowly opened by someone Eiji doesn’t notice at first. When he lowers his eyes a little, however, his gaze meets with a pair of bright green eyes. He takes a little step back, taking the appearance of the blonde kid who’s standing in front him. The suspicious scowl on his face softens a little when his eyes catch the plate in Eiji’s hands but he keeps holding his guard.

“Um…” Eiji begins hesitantly.

“What do you want?” the boy asks with a challenging face.

“M-my mom sent this.” he stammers finally, pushing the plate forward a little clumsily.

The boy’s eyes suspiciously wander from Eiji to the plate, but before he can say anything, hectic footsteps approach them.

“Ash, didn’t I tell you to _never_ open the door without me? What if—oh.” a man says feverishly but he pauses when he notices Eiji. Unlike the boy, _Ash,_ his hair is light brown and unlike Ash, he smiles to Eiji. “Oh, it’s just a kid. What’s up little one?”

Eiji’s cheeks burn from the embarrassment of being called _little one_ , but the man’s smile is reassuring so he straightens a little.

“Hello, my name is Eiji.” he says politely. “My mom and I are living in the opposite apartment from yours and she wanted to send you this plate as a welcome gift.”

The man brightens considerably. “That’s very kind of you!” he says as he accepts he plate. “Nice to meet you Eiji. My name is Griffin and this is my little brother Aslan, but you can call him Ash.”

“Hello, Ash.” he says shyly.

Ash’s cheeks are surprisingly bright pink. He quickly nods at Eiji and hides behind his brother’s leg. Griffin laughs.

“Well, please deliver my thanks to your kind mother, Eiji.” Griffin says with a smile. “It made me feel so welcome.”

“Will do,” Eiji mutters, turning back to leave. When he glances back to Ash, he sees him peeking behind Griffin’s leg, but he quickly hides again when he sees Eiji’s looking. “See you later.”

“See you!” Griffin calls brightly.

Then they see each other again pretty soon. After Eiji tells his mother what happened and gets awarded with a kiss and a plate of sugar cookies, he’s back to coloring the animals when suddenly, their doorbell rings. His mom yells “ _I’ll get it!”_ but Eiji abandons his drawing anyway and peeks from his door.

It’s Griffin and Ash.

They seem like they’ve just returned from the outside. Griffin has a thick scarf wrapped around his neck. And Ash, with his just as thick scarf and puffy coat, reminds him of a cabbage.

“Good evening, Mrs…” Griffin starts politely.

“Okumura.” his mom completes.

“Good evening Mrs. Okumura. My name is Griffin and this is my brother Ash. We just wanted to thank you for your cookies.” He gently nudges Ash.

Ash’s voice is tiny and shy. “Thank you ma’am.”

“Oh, you must be the new neighbors!” his mom exclaims happily. “You’re very welcome! But you both look very cold, would you like to have a cup of tea?” She leans forward and smiles at Ash. “And I’ve just made hot chocolate pudding. Do you like chocolate Ash?”

Ash’s eyes sparkle at the mention of chocolate, but he looks at his brother for permission. Griffin squeezes his hand, smiling softly. “You’re really too kind.” he says to Eiji’s mom.

“Oh, don’t mention it.” she laughs. “Let’s call Eiji, shall we, Ash? I’m sure he’ll be thrilled to see you. Eiji!”

Eiji quickly makes his way to them from where he’s been hiding, hesitantly smiling at Ash once they are face to face. Ash looks a little hesitant too but when Griffin reassuringly squeezes his hand again, he follows Eiji to his room.

“I was just coloring some animals.” Eiji softly mutters when they settle down. He shyly flashes a glance at Ash’s nervous face. “Would you like to color too?”

Ash’s green eyes widens with surprise before he defensively crosses his arms. “You’re joking, right?”

Eiji blinks. “What?”

Ash still looks defensive but there’s also a surprised look on his face. “You’re allowing me to touch your color pencils?”

“Yeah…” Eiji says slowly, feeling a little lost. “I offered after all?”

Ash opens and closes his mouth several times, and in the end, he just decides to trust Eiji and draws closer to where the color book is laying open. “Do you have a lion or tiger?”

“I do!” Eiji says excitedly, quickly turning the pages to find the uncolored lynx picture. “There, let’s color it together.”

Ash’s rigid posture slowly disappears as they color the lynx with careful hands. His good mood only seems to improve even more after Eiji’s mom brings them two bowls of chocolate pudding. He quickly delivers his own bowl with a happy sigh. Eiji doesn’t want to eat his very much after all the sugar cookies he ate today, so he eats much slower.

Ash returns to the coloring, but his eyes keeps glancing at Eiji’s pudding bowl, and after the third glance, Eiji just pushes the bowl to him. “You can eat it if you want.”

The guarded and surprised look is back in Ash’s eyes. “Why?” he asks doubtfully, as if someone willingly giving up on chocolate pudding is simply unthinkable.

Eiji shrugs. “Because I ate too many cookies today and I don’t want it now,” he says and after a moment, adds nervously. “And because I want you to be my friend. Friends share things.”

Ash’s mouth forms a little “o” as he accepts the bowl from Eiji. He looks down at the pudding.

“Thank you.” he murmurs quietly. “ _Friend._ ”

* * *

**13 | 11**

“Oh, Ash…” Eiji sighs desperately.

“It wasn’t my fault.” Ash says for the millionth time.

“That’s not the point.” Eiji says with a sad face. “Look at it, your knee’s bleeding.”

“It’s just a little scratch, Eiji.” Ash scowls. “I’ll be fine.”

Eiji decides not to comment further, continuing cleaning Ash’s wound with great care. They’re lucky his mom took Misaki to the park and they’re alone. As much as Eiji loves his mom, he knows she has the tendency to make a great deal of even the smallest injuries. She’d be even more upset if she found out the cause of it was a fight, since she mollycoddles Ash as much as she does Eiji.

It’s weird to think that just five years ago, their lives didn’t contain Ash and Griffin. Ever since they’d moved to opposite apartment, they’d been an inseparable part of Okumura family’s life. _These boys are attached at the hips,_ everyone always said about Eiji and Ash as they really didn’t leave each other’s side for long. Eiji’s always been quite happy and pleasant about it. Playing with Ash, watching TV with him, sharing chocolate with him, sleeping next to him in their sleepovers and whispering about bunch of stupid stuff and then giggling madly when they should be sleeping… All of this always makes Eiji feel so peaceful.

He doesn’t have much idea if Ash feels the same since the blonde tends to be a little reserved but Eiji guesses he doesn’t mind it so much since he hasn’t left Eiji’s side yet.

Ash tries to hide his grimace as Eiji presses the cotton to the wound, but he winces nevertheless and Eiji quickly pulls the cotton back, blowing on the wound and then pressing the cotton more gently.

“I wish you didn’t get involved at all.” he can’t help but says. “Arthur’s not worth it.”

“He’s a scum.” Ash spits with a dark face.

Eiji sighs again. “Ash…”

“Well, it’s the truth.”

It’s something Eiji will never understand, how some kids can be this cruel to Ash. Whereas Eiji thinks about wrapping him in a blanket and giving him a bowl of chocolate pudding he likes so much whenever he sees his best friend, some kids (especially Arthur) love to pick on Ash. Eiji doesn’t know how they can look at Ash and say mean things to his face.

“ _Leave him alone you bullies!_ ” he had screamed so many times. _“He didn’t do anything wrong!”_

After the wound is finally cleaned, Eiji puts some ointment his mom uses whenever they get injuries on it and blows again before he plants a band aid. He retreats to examine his work. “Doesn’t look so bad.”

Ash quietly gets up from his place, heading for the door without saying anything. He stops at the last moment and turns to Eiji again, eyes on the ground. “Are you mad at me?” he asks faintly.

“No,” Eiji replies gently, his heart overflowing with affection for Ash again. “Just worried. I don’t want them to hurt you.”

“They won’t.” Ash says with determination in green eyes. “They won’t hurt me and they won’t hurt you. I’ll protect you.”

Eiji laughs gently. “Thank you very much Ash,” he says sincerely. He tilts his head in confusion a moment later. “Why did you even fight with him this time? You always just ignore his hateful nonsense.”

Ash lowers his gaze to the ground again, cheeks getting pink as he refuses to speak for a minute. “He was saying mean things about you,” he says finally. “He can say whatever he wants about me, I don’t care. But no one gets to speak badly about you.”

Eiji’s eyes become literally teary and he takes a step to hug Ash tightly before he can stop himself. “Oh, Ash…”

His best friend hesitates for a moment before he gingerly wraps his arms around Eiji too. Eiji pulls back a moment later and looks at him with serious eyes. “Thank you Ash, I’m really honored. But never, _ever_ , fight with him again, okay? He’s not worth it.”

Ash looks at him for a long time. “If that’s what you want.”

Eiji nods with a smile. He ruffles Ash’s blonde hair just to see his playful scowl. “Look how short you are.” he coos to irritate him.

It works. Ash shakes his hand off and looks at Eiji with an annoyed huff. “Just you wait.” he threatens.

Eiji grins. “Sure.”

* * *

**17 | 15**  

Ash is the one who unlocks the door since Eiji’s hands are occupied with ingredients and the moment they step into sunny hallway, their shadows reflects on the wall and causes Eiji to notice their height difference once again.

Eiji stops abruptly and exhales an irritated breath. “Okay, when the hell did this exactly happen?”

Ash, now familiar with Eiji’s particle frustration about this topic, understands what the means immediately and gives him a Cheshire cat smile. Shorter, who has no idea, looks confused as he peels his shoes.

“Aww, still mad about it, shorty?” Ask teases.

“Whatever,” Eiji says firmly. “I’ve got cookies to make.”

Ash continues his teasing. “Hey now, don’t be like that.” he says as he follows Eiji to the kitchen. “You may be short but you’re still the cutest one.”

Eiji snorts a little at that, quickly turning his head to hide his amusement. He thinks he got caught anyway, based on Ash’s little laugh.

“What the fuck are you two talking about?” Shorter finally asks as he enters the kitchen as well. He hops on a stool behind the counter.

“Nothing, we’re just discussing how short Eiji is.” Ash smirks, pulling another stool to watch Eiji work. Eiji rolls his eyes, washing his hands in the sink before he starts making cookie dough.

“But dude, Eiji is not short?” Shorter asks with a confused face. “He’s just shorter than you.”

“Thank you!” Eiji exclaims happily. “Just for that, I’m gonna give you extra cookies while _you_...” He points Ash with his finger. “…get nothing. Not even one.”

“That’s okay.” Ash says confidently. “I’ll just ask Mrs. O. and she’ll happily give me.”

“Yeah, if there’s any left.”

He laughs at the slightly panicked look on Ash’s face, turning back to preparing the dough. As he opens the oven to preheat it, Ash and Shorter start to talk about school stuff. Shorter’s attention quickly shifts from their studies to their love lives, however.

“Man, my love life is literally in shambles right now.” he complains, extending his legs to lean them on Ash’s lap.

Ash looks pretty unamused. “Tragic.” he mocks, shaking Shorter’s legs off his lap in one smooth movement.

“Yeah, easy for you to say.” Shorter groans, looking offended. “You and Eiji have lots of people coming after you, after all.”

Eiji’s hand pauses over plastic mixing container. His surprised eyes travels between Shorter’s offended expression and Ash’s neutral face.

It is _true_ that Ash has a lot of people who would date him in a heartbeat. At fifteen, his best friend has an elegant and powerful handsomeness that suits him in the best way. So no, Eiji is not surprised Ash with his soft golden hair and emerald eyes has a lot of suitors, both male and female.

But he’s not sure why Shorter included him too.

“What are you talking about?” he huffs a laugh finally. “I don’t have people coming after me.”

“Duh, yes you do, dude.” Shorter insists. Eiji just lifts an eyebrow. Shorter lets out an impatient sigh. “’Kay, does the name Cindy ring any bells?”

“Oh.” Eiji can’t help but blushes. Yes, Cindy is a very pretty girl with long shiny black hair and soft brown eyes, but Eiji really doesn’t know how many different versions of “ _Sorry but I’m not romantically interested in women.”_ he can say at this point. “You know it doesn’t count.”

“Fair.” Shorter accepts, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “How about Barry? Surely you have no excuse for this one.”

Eiji’s really lost this time. “Who?” he asks, puzzled.

“Y’know, Barry… the guy who literally looks at you with heart eyes…” Shorter teases but stops when he realizes Eiji really doesn’t know him. “Oh my god. Poor guy, poor Barry...”

Eiji turns his embarrassed gaze to Ash. He’s still weirdly silent but cleans his throat once Eiji looks at him with a silent question. “He’s tried to talk to you couple of times. Sandy hair, blue eyes, glasses.”

“Oooh, him.” Eiji figures out at last. The guy’s really tried to talk to him once in the library and once in the cafeteria, but each time Ash suddenly appeared out of thin air and Eiji’s attention shifted to him after he exchanged a few words with the guy. “Well, I didn’t know he was interested.” he admits bashfully.

Shorter shakes his head at him. “You’re really unbelievable—“ Before he can say anything else, his phone starts ringing and his face brightens considerably. “Ooop, gotta take this. Will be right back boys!”

Meanwhile Eiji finishes mixing the ingredient and begins kneading the dough. Ash watches him silently for a while, then gets up from his stool in one smooth movement, getting behind Eiji.

“Let me help.” he simply says. “Your hands are too kind.”

Eiji can only nod, silently gulping as Ash’s larger hands wrap around his. Ash’s firm chest rests against his back as they silently knead the dough. Eiji wonders if Ash can hear his heartbeat.

“So…” Ash speaks in a low tone after a while. His breath tickles Eiji’s neck. “You really didn’t notice the guy was interested in you?”

Eiji snorts a little. “I didn’t even know his name, Ash.”

“Right.” Ash says lightly, squeezing his hands a little tighter. Eiji feels his face go warmer and warmer each passing second. They knead silently for a while.

“And do you…” Ash starts again, voice soft as a feather. “Do you ever think about dating someone? Someone from school?”

 _Where’s this coming from?_ Eiji’s mouth suddenly feels so, so dry. “I don’t know,” he tries to reply as lightly as he can. They’re nearly finished with the dough. “I don’t think I would date someone from the school now, I’m kinda trying to focus on school.”

A nervous silence. And then—

“What about someone outside of the school then? Someone you’ve known for a long time?”

Eiji _does_ turn to him then, but it’s a really bad idea since they’re leaning on the counter and now Eiji is basically trapped between Ash’s arms. Which is bad for his health, really, because Ash is looking at Eiji’s lips with his green, green eyes and his angelic face is _so_ close that Eiji can feel his breath on his face—

_Ding!_

Eiji fleets between Ash’s arms with one quick movement, his face literally burning in flames. “Oh look, the oven is ready!” he says, voice too loud to be normal. “I’d better shape the cookies and put them. Thank you for your help Ash.”

Behind him, Ash is quiet, too quiet. He finally says “You're welcome.” tersely but there’s also something else in his voice. Something akin to heartbreak and Eiji hates himself in that moment.

They don’t speak again until Shorter returns.

* * *

**19 | 17**

The first thing he sees is green bloodshot eyes when he finally opens his eyes.

The whole world feels too dizzy around Eiji, he can’t really focus on his surroundings. All he can do is keep looking at sad green eyes.

“Oh, thank God.” the owner of the eyes sniffs. “Thank God you’re awake.”

“Wh…” Eiji wants to speak but his throat feels like a literal desert. The other guy makes a shh noise gently, carefully lifting his head to help him drink some water. Eiji’s vision clears once the water passes from his throat.

“ _Ash._ ” he rasps.

“I’m here, I’m here.” Ash reassures quickly. Eiji can’t stop looking him. Ash looks much paler than usual and he wears giant shadows under his eyes. Even his green eyes lacks the brightness Eiji adores so much.

“What happened?” Eiji asks, words slurring a bit.

Ash lifts a hand and passes it through Eiji’s hair. “You had an accident while pole vaulting,” he says sadly. “You lost so much blood. You’d been out for a night.” His voice falters. “A hell of a night.”

“I’m s-s-o—“

“Don’t.” Ash interrupts softly, still petting Eiji’s hair. “You’ll be alright. But you have to eat and take your medicine first. Can you do that for me, Eiji?”

Eiji nods weakly.

Even though he has no appetite, he tries to drink the soup as much as he can, for Ash’s sake alone. After that, they give him some drugs that makes him sleep for long hours. When he wakes up again, Ash is curled up beside him, his blonde head resting next to Eiji’s arm.

Eiji gives no signal of being awake, so he’s surprised when Ash begins talking to him.

“You possibly can’t have any idea how scared I was when they first told me,” he says in a whisper-y tone but Eiji hears him nevertheless. “I couldn’t understand it at first, couldn’t wrap my head around it…”

He sniffs a couple of times before continuing. “And when I saw you laying all bloody on a stretcher, I…” He lets out a shaky breath. “I felt too fucking _powerless_ Eiji… I always thought I could protect you from all the bad things, I just needed to be near you, but I couldn’t protect you this time. I couldn’t and I…”

He suddenly shoots up from where he’s been laying and Eiji’s heart cracks because tears are streaming down from Ash’s beautiful face.

“And _I love you_ , okay?!” he bursts feverishly, chest heaving with his sobs. “I’m in love with you and I’m fucking terrified saying this is going to make you run away from me, saying this is going to ruin our friendship but I can’t help feeling like this Eiji,” he hiccups. “I love you and I can’t stop doing that, even if it’s going to cause me losing you.”

He keeps looking at Eiji with tearful green eyes and suddenly Eiji can’t take it anymore.

“Ash,” he says with his cracked voice. “I can’t get up to kiss you. You know, the cables…”

Ash stops crying to look at him with big, shiny eyes before he all but throws himself at Eiji. Eiji grunts a little with pain but quickly wraps his arms around him.

“Asshole.” Ash whispers but he leans down to capture Eiji’s lips in the gentlest kiss.

“You already always protect me.” Eiji tells him. He wraps his hand around Ash’s and presses it to his heart. “Everytime I think about your face, a protection spell wraps itself around my heart.”

Ash looks down at their hands for a moment before he leans his head down on Eiji’s chest.

“And I do love you, you know.” Eiji whispers, kissing his golden hair gently.

“Yeah, I do,” Ash whispers back softly. “It’s just nice to finally hear it from you.”

**Author's Note:**

> i literally wrote this in one day and little black dots are flying in front of my sight right now. i came up with this idea this morning so i had to get it out of my system before i lost my inspiration, so whoops?  
> let me know what you think. :)
> 
> [tumblr](http://kybelles.tumblr.com/) | [twitter](https://twitter.com/kybelles) | [curious cat](https://curiouscat.me/kybelles)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [I want to spend my life with you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/15767100) by [usagilynx](https://archiveofourown.org/users/usagilynx/pseuds/usagilynx)




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